Only 4 car charging points available across Limerick County – Collins

Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins has called on the ESB and Limerick County Council to provide more car charging points across Co. Limerick after it emerged that there are only four electric car charging points outside of the city.

He warned the government that Ireland will not meet its e-car targets unless there is a major rollout of e-charging points across the country.

Deputy Collins explained, “Limerick is a case in point – outside of the city there are only four car charging points in the whole of the county. That is almost laughable. At a time when there is a concerted drive to get motorists to switch to more environmentally friendly cars, there is simply not the infrastructure in place to make it happen.

“In Limerick, the only charging points are to be found in Adare, Newcastle West, Foynes and Abbeyfeale. The rest of the county doesn’t have any. Unless more charging points are rolled out across Limerick and other parts of the country motorists simply won’t switch to electric vehicles.

“Two of the main obstacles to people moving over to electric vehicles are the lack of charging points and range anxiety – and in many ways the two go hand in hand.

“I am calling on the ESB and Limerick County Council to undertake a comprehensive rollout of charging points in every town and village across the county. Unless we start taking this issue seriously we will fail to meet the EU target of having 10% of our transport energy coming from renewable sources by 2020, and will be subject to significant fines.

“We need to be doing more to encourage people to make the switch to e-vehicles and this is one measure which should be rolled out as a matter of priority”, concluded Deputy Collins.